Watery Tea
by Blonde Pickle Mule
Summary: George is in a bit of a state and Fred's useless when it comes to comfort, so he goes and kinds Katie Bell in the hope she can cheer him up. Some fluffy goodness. Some foreshadowing of George/Katie if you squint.


**Here it is at last- my WAYYY over-due homework for the Hogwarts Online forum. I hope it's good enough for the wait it's been!**

**Disclaimer: I do not, in any shape or form own Harry Potter or anything to do with it.**

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For the first time in his life, George Weasley was curled up in his dormitory utterly miserable. Fred had tried for about an hour to drag him out of his stupor, but nothing was working. In the end he had given up, knowing that really there wasn't anything he could do.

George bit his lip from where he was sprawled out across his pillow, a tissue clutched in his hand. His girlfriend. Gone. He'd had other's before...but Leah had been so different. If he hadn't loved her, then it was the closest he'd ever come before. All she had to do was smile at him before a stupid grin spread across his face, like she'd cast a spell on him.  
He chewed his already mangled lip once again as he fought the tears. She certainly hadn't smiled a few hours ago.

_Leah stood on the shore of the lake, arms folded across her chest. The Eagle emblem emblazoned across her robes almost seemed to glare at George from where he sat watching her worriedly at the bottom of a little knarled Poplar tree. She however, couldn't meet his eyes._

"What is it Li-Li?" He asked lowly, standing. George tired to place a hand on her shoulder, but she recoiled from his touch like he was a cobra.

"Don't call me that." It was like someone had filled his chest with lead. His hand dropped back to his side, clenched in a worried fist.

"What have I done?" Isn't that what Mum always said? That he'd probably dome something and hadn't even noticed? It was something he and Fred tended to do quite a lot admittedly. Leah seemed to be tongue-tied, her mouth moving with nothing but air coming out.

"It's over. I no longer love you. I'm in love with somebody else." The words spilled from her mouth, as she turned her back to him. "Goodbye George."

She'd left him sitting there, feeling like all the breath had been driven from his body. George had eventually been snapped out of his stare-fest when a drop of rainwater landed on his nose. It had taken all his energy to just reach here, not including Fred hanging off him asking what was wrong.

George had never felt like this before. So dead. _"I'm in love with someone else." _The words echoed again and again. He'd been broken up with before, sure. He'd not been good enough and yeah it had hurt, but it was nothing like this. It was partly the fact that tomorrow she'd be hanging off Roger Davies with that stupid self-assured smile of his, partly the fact that he'd really seen something for the two of them.

Was he not clever enough? But surely Leah hadn't come to him for brains? He was a Weasley twin! George shifted onto his back and glared at the ceiling. Why him?

* * *

Down in the Common Room Fred cast another look towards the stairs, his mouth pressed into a thin line. To be honest he was rather surprised at George's reaction to this. From what he gathered of the jumbled tale he'd received, this wasn't something a _bloke _could help with. George was in his gooey emotional state; a state Fred wasn't very good at. He could make people laugh sure, but he knew his twin and him going up there right now would only make things worse.

Fred tapped the front of his notepad absent-mindedly. He couldn't just leave him up there...the slightly older Weasley twin surveyed the Common Room, his eyes landing on a familiar worn couch. A nest of thick blonde hair flopped over the back of it, tied carelessly in a pony-tail. Fred breathed a sigh of relief. Katie would know what to do.

"Katie?" She jumped at the sudden noise, upsetting the ink bottle balanced on her knee.

"Oh-" She let out a curse, staring at the ink covering her lap, then up at the red-headed boy in front of her. "This had better be important."

Fred flopped down on the couch beside her as Katie expertly removed the ink with 'Scorgify'. "It's George..." She listened patiently, rolling her eyes in a couple of places and frowning in others. When he finished, she crossed her arms and grinned, a spatter of forgotten ink across her nose.

"It sounds like a soap opera." She told him flatly. Fred looked at her blankly.

"A what?" Katie shook her head, smiling patronizingly at him.

"You remember the little box with pictures I told you about? That's one type of picture...thing." Fred shook his head. Muggles were impossible to understand sometimes. One minute he'd have mastered some ingenious trick of theirs, then they'd spring something even more confusing on him. Moving pictures in boxes? Barmy. Fred made a mental note not to mention anything about this to his father.

"So will you talk to him?" Katie's eyes flicked towards her homework for a moment.

"All right. That essay's dead any way." Fred felt a smile spread across his face. He'd done his duty as a twin- George would be alright now. He watched as Katie disappeared up the staircase followed by many strange looks, then brought his invention notes towards him.

Ton-Tongue Toffees. Perfect.

* * *

Katie stood nervously in front of the door, pulling at her sleeves. What was she supposed to do again? She listened quietly for a minute, judging whether or not Fred was just over-reacting. A sniffle came from the other side of the door. Was...was George _crying? _Without a second thought Katie pushed the door open. The Weasley twins didn't cry...

George's prone form was curled up on the bed, eyes trained on her. He wasn't crying, she realised with relief- just throughoutly miserable and in soaked robes. Katie rolled her eyes in exasperation. Surely Fred had more sense than to just leave him, wet clothes and all? Now George probably had a cold on top of his drama. Katie felt a small amount of her sympathy disintegrate when the boy on the bed flipped himself over and refused to look at her, but she shrugged it off and made her way round the piles of unwashed clothes and sweet-wrappers that littered the floor.

"George..." she sighed, finally reaching the bed. He still didn't look up, but she saw him shift towards her slightly. "You're going to be alright."

Katie laid her hand on his shoulder and finally he rolled back to face her. "Am I?" She just gave him a look.

"You're George Weasley, love. You being alright's almost a fact." Already just having someone cheerful in the room was doing the read-headed boy good. He smiled weakly up at his friend.

"You said almost, Kates." She rolled her eyes. He was going to be fine.

"Now get up you great lump. You're all wet." George looked down at himself like he was slightly surprised.

"Oh, right...I'd forgotten about that."

With a few more little jabs and patronizing comments Katie got him out of bed and into some jeans and his large knitted sweater. For all that she teased him Katie knew George was in a bit of a fragile state still and shoved him firmly back in bed.

They spent the next few hours determinedly talking of nothing but pointless subjects over a mug of conjured tea, which George insisted was too watery. ("I'm never being nice to you again." Katie muttered, frowning at her own mug.)

George gradually began to get the life back in him, and they were just getting ready to head back down to Fred when Katie turned to him with a grin. "You could always prank Roger you know, or the whole of Ravenclaw if you're feeling creative."

George stared at her for a minute, then a grin spread slowly across his face, his brown eyes getting some of their familiar sparkle back.  
"Oi, Fred! C'mere I've got an idea!" He yelled ahead of himself as he took the stairs three at a time. Katie followed at a slower pace, chuckling to herself.

Now she had to get back to her Herbology Essay- lovely.

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**Well...I hope you enjoyed that. I really did try to not make George too soppy, but love can break a man. I'm not too happy with the ending, but I couldn't find any other way to wrap it up. Feel free to review if you want to, if not I love you anyway.**


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